↬ THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS, midnight tales and dangerous magic. ( 2017 ) by leigh bardugo.
sentences taken from or inspired by the collection’s dialogue & narration.
+ feel free to change pronouns !
i. AYAMA AND THE THORN WOOD.
‘ love speaks in flowers. truth requires thorns. ’
‘ we all know the story of how the queen becomes a queen. ’
‘ we should leave this place. ’
‘ no doubt it will come and devour us all. ’
‘ the beast will laugh you right out of the wild lands. ’
‘ you know how the stories go. interesting things happen only to pretty girls. ’
‘ is the wood much worse than a garden overgrown with pricklers ? ’
‘ stupid girl ! do you wish to become a monster ? ’
‘ strike me. cleave me in two. ’
‘ you’re as thorny as the wood. ’
‘ there is but one rule in my wood. speak truth. ’
‘ perhaps you might show mercy freely. ’
‘ just eat a bit of the sun to fill the sky, and you will feel empty no longer. ’
‘ what nonsense ! of course that’s not how the story ends. ’
‘ some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled. ’
‘ what do i care for winter ? no season touches this wood. ’
‘ you know the only bargain i will make. ’
‘ sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and those that are meant to love us most are not always the ones that do. ’
‘ bad fates do not always follow those that deserve them. ’
‘ no prince is worth your life. ’
‘ are you so eager to be eaten ? ’
‘ they have told me to return with your heart. ’
‘ you think to love a monster ? ’
‘ a man like you is owed no words. ’
‘ you are doomed to a miserable life. ’
‘ better to be hungry now than to be sorry later. ’
‘ what will everyone say when they see such a face ? ’
‘ we have not gone so soft as that. ’
‘ you think that we will let you live on foolish promises ? ’
‘ you have bested me. that much is clear. ’
‘ will you not free me ? ’
‘ you will have a fine time of it, i can tell you. ’
‘ i can bear ugliness. i find the one thing i cannot live with is death. ’
‘ if you will only cease your talking, i will gladly go. ’
‘ where he went, he bled the woods dry. ’
‘ what’s a bit more blood ? ’
‘ you should leave this place. you are not safe here. ’
‘ with such big eyes, i think you see too much. ’
‘ will you not tell me what troubles you ? ’
‘ why do you stay with him ? you’re pretty enough to catch a husband. ’
‘ just because you escape one trap, doesn’t mean you will escape the next. ’
‘ first i must find my courage. ’
‘ few can resist the sight of a pretty girl crying. ’
‘ the trap is loneliness, and no one escapes it. not even me. ’
‘ in the wood, even songbirds must be survivors. ’
‘ there was a time when the wood ate girls. ’
‘ be back before dark. the trees are hungry tonight. ’
‘ who can say what shapes an appetite ? ’
‘ this is my home, you can’t just send me away. ’
‘ don’t be foolish. there’s plenty of light. ’
‘ well then, come help me stir the pot. ’
‘ i will warn you just this once. go. ’
‘ you cannot come and go from this place like you’re fetching water from a well. ’
‘ hope made me stubborn. ’
‘ stay there and keep quiet. i don’t need rumors that i’ve been taking girls. ’
‘ i will not have you bring a monster to my door. ’
‘ you know that you are welcome to remain here with me. ’
‘ i will follow her. i will peck out her eyes. ’
‘ believe me. say you believe me. ’
‘ dark things have a way of slipping through narrow spaces. ’
‘ it is dangerous to travel the northern road with a troubled heart. ’
‘ if you are lost in your own thoughts, you may find yourself stepping off the path and into the dark woods. ’
‘ she was beautiful from the moment of her birth. ’
‘ why must i be the one to hide ? ’
‘ do you think i am so foolish or so cruel ? ’
‘ water only wants direction. it wants to be told what to do. ’
‘ always you have done my bidding, but what good are you to me now ? ’
‘ soon i will be very rich, but will i have a good man ? ’
‘ that is a question for the river. ’
‘ your tongue is not fit for my true name. ’
‘ will you come with me, and be bride to nothing but the shore ? ’
‘ she was terrifying in her beauty, bright like a devouring star. ’
‘ remember that to use a thing is not to own it. ’
‘ should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. ’
‘ this is the problem with even lesser demons. they come to your door in velvet coats and polished shoes. ’
‘ you will find great love and more gold than you could wish for. ’
‘ he’s a charming fellow, but most unusual, and peculiarities seem to follow him. ’
’ it seemed harmless at the time. ’
‘ he needed a girl, still malleable, one that he could make admire him. ’
‘ this is pleasant. this is enough. ’
‘ are you my soldier ? are you my prince ? ’
‘ i have not come to fight, only to talk. ’
‘ wanting is why people get up in the morning. it gives them something to dream of at night. ’
‘ she loves you, though, and that will make it harder. ’
‘ best not to ask. i think the answer would please no one. ’
‘ we can stay forever in the land of dreams. ’
‘ kiss me. take me from this place. ’
‘ i sent you to die a hundred times. ’
‘ i eat the wonder in their eyes. ’
‘ you were an idea in my head. you were nothing, and to nothing you will return when i think of you no more. ’
‘ you wanted only that i might live. you would sacrifice your own life to make it so. ’
‘ are you my darling ? are you mine ? ’
vi. WHEN WATER SANG FIRE.
‘ you wish to strike a bargain. ’
‘ this is the problem with making a thing forbidden. it does nothing but build an ache in the heart. ’
‘ easy magic is pretty. great magic requires that you trouble the waters. ’
‘ no one expects me to accomplish anything. ’
‘ i can smell your ambition like blood in the water.’
‘ i know that you should keep it like a secret, not shout it like a curse. ’
‘ yes. i can imagine it all. ’
‘ you are worth more than that. you should not have to earn him. ’
‘ hope rises like water trapped beneath a dam, higher and higher, in increments that mean nothing until you face the flood. ’
‘ there is no pain like the pain of transformation. ’
‘ take your pleasures as you will. ’
‘ come, and i’ll tell you all you wish to know. ’
‘ he made me dream of things i cannot have. ’
‘ i do not care for dancing. ’
‘ look into the mirror, and try to deny it. ’
‘ you have never been like the others, and you never will be. ’
‘ we were not made to please princes. ’
‘ i am not quite mortal either, and i have many lives to live. ’
‘ i wouldn’t care if you were part human or part frog. ’
‘ my voice is not enough. ’
‘ you know i was never strong. ’
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